is the word 'diary' better than the word 'blog'? probably not.
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Be Merry.
Well, here I am in San Francisco again. It has been a busy few days. I flew to OAK from PHL via Las Vegas on Friday, and ended up with 2+ hours in the Vegas airport. Because I had had some wine at the end of my long flight from OAK to LAS, I was slightly drunk when I emerged in Las Vegas, and that is why I ended up in a Sammy Hagar-themed tequila restaurant all unawares. It wasn�t until after I ordered an overpriced quesadilla and an overpriced coke that I realized where I was. It was briefly funny, and then I was stuck listening to Hagar music while I ate.
It took me roughly 3 minutes to remember how boring slot machines are.
Then I read some ladies� magazines without buying them. Then I recommenced grading papers. And then I boarded my flight to OAK. I got in around 9 on Friday night and went to Caroleen�s. Turns out, she and Liz were at a party at the house of someone I know, and neither Liz nor Caroleen had mentioned this to me, or I would have jumped in a cab and gone to the party. I haven�t been to a loud raucous too-drunk party in a long time! However, I was more than half thankful the next day that instead of being hungover I was well rested and ready to go. I jumped out of bed at 8:30 am and walked over to St. Francis Fountain, where I had two eggs over medium with perfect homefries, fried banana bread and a coke.
Then I went back to Caroleen�s, did some email wrangling, and set off on the long and winding bus trip to Cole Valley, where I met the person I�ll be house-sitting for, and the cat (named Cleatus!) I�ll be sitting on. Turns out, I�m housesitting just a few blocks from the San Francisco FLUEVOG STORE. And right now, in the San Francisco Fluevog store only, there is a cute cute shoe called the Mini Momo that is a special edition one can only get in San Francisco for a short time and oh how it tempts me with its cuteness and utility. It is not on sale and it is not cheap, this shoe.
It is possible I might buy a pair. They last for years and years and make happiness happen throughout all those years. We�ll see how the rest of my Xmas spending adds up.
Then I went to Evany and Marco�s new place to look at Desi, do some grocery shopping, collect some baby drool on various parts of me, and help Evany set up for the holiday party. And then I enjoyed the holiday party.
Yesterday Evany, Marco, Desi, Caroleen and I went to the Renegade Craft Fair at Fort Mason and gazed at crafts. I didn�t buy much but did get some really good deals on a few great gifts and things for my new house. I am full of regret about not having bought a certain print of a bird painting. I mean, my new house is huge, full of expansive blank wall space, and my art collection is dwarfed by the rooms� dimensions. Anyway, back at the craft fair, I had assumed I�d be able to order prints online and have them shipped to Philly, because the artist has an etsy shop. But the print I most wanted is not online at the artists� shop. I can probably write him an email message and special order it, except that I�m not sure how good I�ll be at describing it in such a way that he�ll know exactly what I�m talking about, since all of his paintings are of birds. Heh.
Speaking of spending money, I could really, really use a massage and a manicure. I am not really much of a manicure person, but moving has made my hands look like the hands of a scullery maid. And my back hurts.
However, shoes might be more valuable to me than a massage and manicure. That�s just how I roll. I can�t have it all, and that�s fine.
Today I am grading papers until around 1, when I �ll get a ride to my dad�s house to recreate the ancestral greek Christmas cookies. Tomorrow: more cookies of a different sort, and possibly some marshmallows, plus the wrapping of gifts. Wednesday: move into the housesit.
I have work to do. Hopefully I will do some of it. But my main aim is to see everyone and have a good time doing so.
I had a conversation with a colleague of mine last week wherein he admitted that he is sorely tempted at the end of every semester to �give himself an afternoon off.� When he said that he meant that he really shouldn�t do such a thing. He should be working instead. I tried with all my might to knock that crazy idea out of him.
Academia (and not only academia, but academia is most of what I know when it comes to working these days) is plagued with a guilt-complex-syndrome that is both a normative weight and a self-fulfilling prophecy. It is a normative weight in that it is so infused into the culture that if you are someone who has retained enough emotional sanity to know that days off are important and that days off also, on occasion, make the work better, you will still find yourself feeling guilty for giving yourself days off because hard workers never have finished their work and so they should not rest until they are done.
But the life of the mind is never done. And sometimes it can wait. And, and, sometimes it even fares better if you give it a rest.
The self-fulfilling prophecy part kicks in when everyone is so convinced by the normative weight that they never allow themselves a break, and then they become humourless academics (the kind who are part of the reason behind why the word �academic� is sometimes used in a pejorative sense to mean: dry, methodical, and mostly useless to the world).
Give yourself an afternoon (or more!) off, my friends. And then ignore email for a day or two and do your own work.
11:19 a.m. - December 21, 2009
Becky - 2009-12-21 22:01:56
Hooray! I'm taking the whole damn day off! Thanks for the permission; it feels good. Now go buy those shoes.
Glad you found a housesit and I always enjoy your SF travelogues, makes me homesick.
Happy holidays, and here's to an exciting and prosperous New Year.
Becky
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